How the Foster Care System is Broken in California

On June 30, 2017, Carson Peterson became the adopted child of Tex and Rene Peterson after more than thirteen years in foster care, says Nicole Pelletiere (18-year-old who spent nearly 13 years in foster care adopted into forever home). Why was it so hard for Cardon to get adopted? With 68,000 children in foster care, it is a miracle he was found by the right family. Not only are there so many children in foster care, they are not all listed on the California foster care system’s website, California Kid Connection/]. For every child that is listed, there are at least 95 children that are not put up on the site, lowering their chances of ever finding their forever home. How would the Petersons even found Carson if he wasn’t listed? They would have had to be major advocates and have made phone call after phone call to find an unlisted child. One of the other big problems is the way the foster care system works in California. According to Jeff Catz of the Huffington Post, “California is one of about ten states that have a state-supervised and county-administered approach to foster care” (California adoption – Why Is It So Hard to Adopt from Foster Care?). This approach means that each county is a system within the statewide system and inter-county adoptions are rare and hard to process. Between the massive number of children in the the foster care system, the large number of those children not listed on California Kid Connection, and the bubbles that counties have become within the state, it is no wonder it took thirteen years for Carson to finally find a permanent, loving home.